Jobs

Paul isn't having much luck finding a summer job. Right now, he's thinking about taking a 3-week job at his college, right smack dab in the middle of summer. Those three weeks would pay as much as a 15-hr-per-week job for the whole summer. So it's a risk. Does he grab the little job while he still can, even if it makes other jobs unavailable, or does he keep trying for a full-time job that would last for 12 weeks? The job at college would look a whole lot better on his resumé.

I keep looking at the want ads too. Gary's hours were cut again. It was kind of shocking to realize that we'd be better off (financially) now if we'd stayed at our old home/congregation with no paycheck but only the parsonage to live in, because Gary would still have his teaching for CUW and I'd still have my part-time job. So we're trying to figure this out. If I got a job, would I earn enough to compensate for the frugality measures we'd probably forego? If I got a job, would we have to put Maggie in school? Can we get good enough at gardening --and turn enough yard into garden-- that we can drastically cut the food bill? Is there anything I can do (maid work? painting?) that would permit the kids to work with me and not have to be micro-managed by the govt (as catering or baking would)? Is our family ready for money-earning to be a higher priority for me than teaching/cooking/housekeeping?

Thankfully, Gary still has a job; there have not been lay-offs at his company. And thankfully, we have a neighbor who has tilled up a nice big patch of the back yard for us (and tilled repeatedly) so that we can get started on gardening without loads of grass pestering us. And also thankfully, we have another neighbor who has a big pile of horse manure and straw available free for anyone who wants to haul it. As I'm looking at the seed catalogs, the heirloom seeds are looking mighty attractive, in that I would not have to keep buying seeds year after year, but could just save them.